Mangaluru, Oct 6, 2015: A startling revelation through a sting operation by investigative websites Cobrapost.com and Gulail has revealed how the RSS-VHP-BJP along with their splinter groups have managed to use several techniques like violence, emotional blackmail, intimidation, duplicity and drugs to separate Hindu-Muslim married couples. The sting claims that Hindutva groups were “forcibly rescuing” girls who are “victims of love jihad”, a termed coined by them to refer to the marriage between Muslim men and Hindu women. Cobrapost and Gulail claim that their invstigation reveals that there was a systematic effort towards using love jihad to polarise communities along communal lines.

Interestingly, during the course of their sting operation, the Cobrapost and Gulail team had met several leaders and workers of these organisations inculding BJP MLC from Mangaluru Ganesh Karnik, VHP leader from Mangaluru Jagadish Shenava and Shrikar Prabhu who is expelled from the BJP apart from BJP MP from Muzaffarnagar and Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan; BJP MLA from Thana Bhawan in Uttar Pradesh Suresh Rana; BJP MP from Kairana in UP Hukum Singh; BJP MLA from Sardhana Sangeet Som; BJP’s district level leader in Muzaffarnagar Sanjay Agarwal; Umesh Malik, who contested the Assembly election from Budhana on a BJP ticket and lost; RSS leader Omkar Singh in Muzaffarnagar and Lalit Maheshwari, VHP’s Muzaffarnagar unit head.

VHP leader Jagadish Shenava, Srikar Prabhu

The interviews that the team had with this Hindutva brigade bring forth the following truths about “love jihad” claims Cobrapost and Gulail.com .* They forcibly rescue girls who are victims of “love jihad.”* They misuse public support for mounting pressure on police and local administration to nullify such marriages.* They file fake rape and kidnapping cases against Muslim youth who elope with or marry Hindu women.* They use fake documents showing girls as minor so as to implicate the Muslim boys.*If a Hindu woman is not willing toØ give a statement against her Muslim lover or husband or is not willing to forsake him, they use emotional blackmail and physical force to make her fall in line.*They even administer medicinal drugsØ on “love jihad” victims to induce temporary amnesia to rescue them from inter-religious marriages.* Interestingly, not a single woman, they claimed to have rescued, ever sought their help saying she was a victim of “love jihad.”* They distribute inflammatory pamphlets and books to further their cause.*They run counselling centres and HinduØ helplines to brainwash Hindu women who marry outside their community into giving up on their love life and settle for the man chosen by the Hindutva Brigade.*These counselling sessions consist of aØ poor depiction of the man she is in love and denigration of his religion, call to her family and community honour, instilling a sense of insecurity in the woman with regard to her future and use of threat of physical harm to both her and her lover.

Introducing herself as an M Phil student from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi who was associated with right-wing student organisation ABVP, Shazia Nigar of Gulail team met various BJP, RSS and VHP leaders in Muzaffarnagar, Karnataka and Kerala, as part of the sting operation.

Herewith we reproduce the Cobrapost report on the sting operation involving Jagadish Shenava and Srikar Prabhu:

’’Jagdish Shenava, a lawyer by profession and VHP’s Mangalore district working president, recounts his experience of one such rescue operation on February 29, 2014. He confesses to slapping false cases on Muslim men and admits using mobs to build pressure on the local police. He says, “Legally it is right but in that there is no legality for us. We won’t allow. Ye bahut saara hotels main, yeh disco wisco main Muslim ladka Hindu ladki ko leke jaata hai (Muslim men take Hindu girls to many hotels, discos). We won’t allow.” Recounting one particular case, he confesses that he got a Muslim man arrested on charges of kidnapping and talked the woman out of her decision to be with a Muslim man after “counselling” her.

He also explains how organisations such as his are able to build pressure on the police machinery to take the law of the land into their own hands. He says, “Idhar apna organisation hai na, itna powerful hai ki inspite of being the Congress government they are scared of us because we are so powerful here. Aisa apna organisation bahut powerful hai (Here we have our organisation, it’s so powerful that in spite of being the Congress government they are scared of us because we are so powerful here).” He recounts the incident: “There is a girl called Swati (name changed) from the working class, poor people. She ran away with a Muslim who was already married with three children. She was 21 years old. We protested a lot and we found her after a month. We brought her back and got the man arrested. I kept her in my house for four days. We changed her mind set and got her married again.” The girl was persuaded to leave her lover using both force and counselling, and members of Durga Vahini also help. Says Jagdish Shenava: “Yes, Durga Vahini and monks talk to them. We take them there. If they don’t understand, we use force.” They run counseling sessions to change the mind of such victims of “love jihad” and bring them back to Hindufold.

The Muslim boy had to spend three months in jail as he was charged with kidnapping. But Shenava knows the case won’t stand scrutiny during trial as he says: “We charged him with kidnapping. But it won’t stand in court because the girl is also a major.”

The same day our correspondent met BJP MLC Captain Ganesh Karnik in the party’s headquarters in Mangalore, who claims to have infiltrated the police force with RSS workers: "We have tried to send some of our boys into police. When I talk to students I tell them to join the police. So when we need help there are a lot of karyakartas, RSS. Sixty percent of the young constables are our students.” This infiltration into the police force comes in handy when they need to take the law into their hands.

Captain Ganesh also propagates the myth of “love jihad” and of a Muslim conspiracy to increase their population to convert India into an Islamic state.

The same day our correspondent met BJP MLC Captain Ganesh Karnik in the party’s headquarters in Mangalore, who claims to have infiltrated the police force with RSS workers: “We have tried to send some of our boys into police. When I talk to students I tell them to join the police. So when we need help there are a lot of karyakartas, RSS. Sixty percent of the young constables are our students.” This infiltration into the police force comes in handy when they need to take the law into their hands.

Captain Ganesh also propagates the myth of “love jihad” and of a Muslim conspiracy to increase their population to convert India into an Islamic state," states the Cobrapost and Gulail.Com reports.